


What've We Missed?

by PaleEmeraldNebula



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Amnesia, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Humor, Temporary Amnesia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-08
Updated: 2014-05-08
Packaged: 2018-01-24 00:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1584797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaleEmeraldNebula/pseuds/PaleEmeraldNebula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last thing they both remember is defeating the Sycorax, eating Christmas dinner, and then going to sleep in separate beds. So why are they waking up naked in the same bed and wearing wedding rings? And why does the Doctor have only one heart?</p>
            </blockquote>





	What've We Missed?

**Author's Note:**

> Beta'd by Kilodalton.

Rose ran her thumb over the Doctor’s, their fingers entwined, as they stared up at the night sky. She’d done it instinctively then pursed her lips, worried that he had noticed or that she had stepped out of bounds. When he didn’t comment or look her way, she glanced back up. The not-snow from the Sycorax’s ship had stopped and the lights from streets had gone out, letting the stars shine brightly enough for her to see a few constellations.  Eagerness set her nerves alight with tingles, knowing that soon she would travel through the very same stars with her new Doctor.

“Do you want to come in and get your laundry?” The Doctor asked, his voice casual even as he stared intently at the universe above them.

She studied his profile, still getting used to seeing this new face instead of the one she had been so familiar with. “We’ll be leaving soon then, yeah?”

“Oh, not too soon, the TARDIS needs a bit of a rest, maybe a week or so. I figured since we’re out here, might as well be productive to boot.”

“Alright then,” she glanced behind her to catch her mother’s stare, “Be right back, see you upstairs?”

“Sure sweetheart, don’t be too long, got loads of dishes to do and cleaning before we turn in.”

“I’ll help with that,” Mickey offered.

“Come on then, better start before it gets late and we get too sleepy to do anything else,” Jackie said as she and Mickey headed for the Estate. Jackie raised her chin to Rose before disappearing up the steps and yelled, “Don’t dilly-dally too long!”

“I won’t Mum!” Rose yelled back.

The Doctor released her hand and opened the door to the TARDIS, tilting his head to the inside of the ship.  “Coming?”

Rose turned to him, smiling, “What do you think?”

“I think your mother told you not to dilly-dally.” He went in and hopped up the ramp, bounding over to the Time Rotor.

“And I won’t, I’ll just grab my things.” She followed him at a much slower pace; wanting to stretch out the moment and see him blend into the TARDIS with his new suit and his new body.

After flicking a switch and lighting up the room, the Doctor turned on his heel, leaned back and crossed his ankles and his arms.

She took a few hesitant steps in his direction. “Are you gonna stay here all night, on the TARDIS, or did you want to come up?”

He sniffed. “I’m still in the first twenty four hours of my regeneration cycle, probably best to sleep some more. Which I’ll do here, not very interested in your mother’s sofa.”

“Should hope not, dips in the middle and smells like burnt cheese.”

He pointed a finger at her. “And that gets on clothes. Smells tend to do that, transfer over from one fabric to another.”

She laughed. “Exactly! Had to throw out two pairs of jeans because of it.”

“And I would very much like to keep these trousers; this new suit goes quite well with this new face.”

Rose sobered; her laughter fading as she caught his stare. “Yeah, about that, maybe next time you change-“

“Which I have no plans on doing anytime soon, I think I like this body!” He stretched his neck and adjusted his tie.

“Yeah, well, when you do, maybe we can have code or a secret question so I’ll know it’s you, just in case I’m not there.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, maybe, ‘Siltheen farts in a can are only good for?’”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Repelling politicians?”

“Right, that!” She doubled over, laughing, holding back a snort, feeling as if she was back with the old Doctor. “That’s perfect, so that’ll be our question and answer, if we ever need it.”

“If we ever need it!” He nodded rigorously, his attention somewhere over her shoulder. “And if luck would have it, that won’t be for a very long time.”

“Hope not, don’t want to go through that again.”

“Neither do I,” the Doctor said, his voice softening.

Their eyes met and Rose’s stomach flopped at his earnest expression, recalling the memory of the old him bursting into golden light. She tapped her fingers, bringing one to her mouth, and looked away. “I guess – I guess I’ll go get my laundry. See you tomorrow?”

“Bright and early! I’ve got our day planned, not sitting around with telly and toast during the holidays, we should celebrate properly!” He rushed over to the other side of the console, concentrating on the controls.

“Staying home with family not proper enough for you?”

His head shot up. “Oh, no. No! That’s not what I mean, what I mean is that we should throw ourselves right in, experience the holidays with people, lots and lots of brilliant people! We could go to the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland or the Covent Garden, best light show in London! Or both! Doesn’t that sound fun?”

“Can we do all that without the TARDIS?”

“Of course we can! You will see just how magnificent at planning I can be tomorrow, Rose Tyler. Or at least I think I am, this me might be rubbish at planning.”

She headed to the corridor, towards her room, remembering the old Doctor’s penchant for bad plans. Before she turned the corner she took one last peek at the new Doctor and muttered, “Looking forward to it then.”

~~~vVv~~~

Rose woke with her head feeling stuffed with cotton made of iron. She rubbed her temples, hoping the discomfort would go away. She sat up, the sheet falling to her waist, and shivered from the cold. She looked down and noticed she was naked. She didn’t remember undressing this much last night.

“Ugh, blimey my head hurts!” The sound of the Doctor’s voice snapped her attention towards him. She grabbed the sheets in front of her and pulled them up around her chest as she stared wide-eyed at the man sitting beside her on the bed. His eyes were closed as he massaged his temples and the sheets bundled up around his hips, his chest bare.

 “D-Doctor?”

“Rose? What are you doing in my bedroom?” He opened his eyes and jolted back the moment he took in her appearance, almost falling off the bed. “A-and, and…”

“Naked?” she supplied as her eyes darted around the room, trying to piece together how this had happened.

“Yes, that. Why-why are you naked?”

“I don’t know! I just woke up and I was like this!”

“Right.” He tugged the sheet and wrapped it around his waist, clutching and releasing the material. “We have…this is…”

He didn’t finish his thought and instead scanned the dark room, the only light a soft blue glow from the columned round lamps on the curved walls. He kept his eyes on anything other than her, his gaze unfocused, “What’s the last thing you remember?”

She watched his Adam’s apple bob, lingering on his exposed neck and shoulders. She shifted so her back was to the edge of the bed and tucked in her legs, trying to put distance between them. “Just going to bed last night, after Christmas dinner and grabbing my clothes from the TARDIS.”

“That’s the last thing I remember as well.” He caught her eyes and then turned away, even with the faint light of the room she could see his ears and cheeks redden. “Well, not your exact version, but going to bed after you left the TARDIS.”

He bent down, over the edge of the bed, and Rose had to look away so she wouldn’t get a full view of his bum. Her gaze gravitated towards the sight, but she squeezed her eyes shut. “So how’d we end up here?”

He sat back up, his fingers curled around his sonic screwdriver. “That’s what I’m about to find out.” He pointed his sonic screwdriver at her and clicked it on, waving it up and down then turned it on his own person. He turned it off and studied the instrument. “Oh, we’ve got elevated Mycornin in our system. That’s weird.” He held the screwdriver closer to his eyes. “That’s even weirder. I’ve got elevated cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone hormones as well. Huh.”

“What do those do?”

“Those are hormones specifically tied to aging in humans, which I shouldn’t have. I don’t age, or I do, just at a very, very slow rate.”

“That means?”

“Not sure. No matter. The most important bit of information is the elevated Mycornin, which is found on the planet Terspid. Mycornin can inflect temporary memory loss in humans, though why it’s effecting me I have no clue. I probably told you not to drink the water on the planet and you probably did anyway.”

“Oi, don’t go blaming me for this. You must have drunk the water too, if you’re missing the same memories as I am.”

In her indignation she forgot for a second that she was naked. He seemed to have forgotten too, as they had inched closer to one another. With an intake of breath, Rose leaned back, pulling the sheet further up her chest. The Doctor eyes roamed her form, his lips gapping like a fish, before he sprang away from her and turned his head towards the ceiling.

“I’ll- I’ll need to look at the TARDIS records and do a full scan of her systems. We might have contracted Mycornin in some other way, could have been hidden in a drink or our food while visiting another planet.” He grabbed his trousers from the floor, shimmying into them under the sheet and popped out of the bed, still red around the ears. “Come on, won’t figure this out lying in bed all day.”

With the Doctor preoccupied getting dressed, she looked down, trying to find her clothes. It wasn’t shocking to her after spending a year with the Doctor that they could end up in this situation. Something was going on and though this Doctor still felt new, she trusted him. At least, she trusted him enough to be the Doctor. She found her shirt under the bed, her bra near a lamp, and jeans, but couldn’t find her knickers.

She turned back around on the bed and almost collided with a half-dressed Time Lord. He held up a sliver of purple lace fabric between his fingers, his eyes averted. “These yours?”

She nabbed them from his fingers, blushing. “Yeah.”

He scrambled from the bed, pulling on his oxford, his undershirt already on. He kept his back to her. “Best hurry; we don’t know the full details of what happened to us and I am bit worried about the extra hormones in my system and the fact we both seem to have very precise memory loss.”

“You think that could mean something?” she asked, hopping on one foot as she slipped on her jeans.

“Could be, depends on how long we went from our last memory to now. If it’s only been a few weeks it could be the result of my recent regeneration. If it’s been longer, then that’s a whole other can of worms. Though,” he weaved his fingers through his hair, “that still doesn’t explain why we have the same last memory.”

The Doctor raced out of the room after he was fully dressed, and she noticed he didn’t have a tie. Rose chased after him as she tugged on her shoes. The whitewashed walls of the TARDIS corridor stood out, her last memory of them being a dull yellow. “Doctor, does the TARDIS look a bit…” her voice trailed off as they entered the console room. Instead of it being the same room she had grown used to, yellow, turquoise, and messy, the walls and struts were sparkling white; the console shone a deep rich blue, overhead space hung like a 3D picture, with glittering stars and nebula. The railings were silver and sleek, the jump seat spotless grey leather, and instead of grating, the floor was made of thick glass. The rest of her sentence came out in a whisper, “…different to you?”

The Doctor stood frozen, staring at the new console room. “She’s new. She’s changed. How? When?” He rushed over to the console, yanking the screen to him.

“She does that?”

He kept his eyes on the screen, tapping away commands. “Yes, either if she’s badly injured or if her mood sways her.” He looked up at her new decorative ceiling.  “She hasn’t been in the mood to change for quite some time.” His voice grew smaller with each word.

She watched him work, concern forcing down another question. His eyes were large and his breath came harder, his chest heaving. She went to his side, and touched his elbow, keeping her touch feather light. “Doctor, are you having a panic attack?”

He whipped his head in her direction. “What?”

“Your breathing, I’ve never seen you breathe so hard.”

He scrunched up his face. “No, Time Lords do not have panic attacks. If my emotions start to affect my other body functions I simply need to turn on my respiratory bypass –“ He placed a hand over his chest, his eyes growing wider and his mouth formed an O. “I’ve…I’ve only got one heart.”

She placed her palm on his chest, next his hand. “Seriously? What happened to your other heart?”

The Doctor took a step back, his brows furrowing, and his eyes staring off into nothing. He wiped his face with his other hand, “I don’t know.”

“Doctor.”

“What?”

“You’re wearing a ring.”

“A what?”

“A ring, on your finger, the left hand.”

The Doctor held out both hands in front of him, turning them over. He dropped his right hand and stared at his left. There, on his ring finger, was a simple dark silver band. He pulled it off, holding it to his face to study the inside of the ring. The ring popped from his fingers, flying into the air. He fumbled to catch it and immediately put it back on. Gingerly he took Rose’s left hand and she noticed she wore a matching set, only on her finger a beautiful blue engagement ring sat next to her band.

“Are we,” Rose swallowed, unable to come to any other conclusion, “married?”

He released her hand and regarded her with knitted brows. He examined her body, his eyes clinical and detached. “You look older.”

“Gee thanks.”

“No, I mean, you honestly look older. You’re slimmer, your face more angular, and you’ve got lines on your face that wasn’t there before.”

She cupped her cheeks with both hands, her fingers roaming in search for the lines. “Doesn’t feel different.”

“I think it’s safe to say that it’s been longer than a few weeks. Hold on.” He went back to the console and the screen. He leaned closer to it, pouring over the information flashing before him.

“That doesn’t explain why you’ve only got one heart! No, wait, if you’ve only got one heart then that means you might not be the Doctor.”

“Of course I am!” He retorted, his voice riddled with offence.

“If you are the Doctor, then tell me what Siltheen farts in a can are good for?”

“Repelling politicians,” at his reply she sighed with relief, he then shot her a pointed glance, “Now can you stop with that silly notion that I’m not me. Or do you want me to ask you how many pairs of jeans you had to toss because of your mother’s sofa. Oh!”

“What?” His sudden change in tone felt like mental whiplash.

“She’s mad at me.”

“The TARDIS?”

“I don’t know why. Why would she –” His mouth closed with a click of his teeth and he took a few steps backward, his eyes still locked on the screen.

“Doctor!”

“I’m part human. We woke up in the same bed and we wear matching rings, engraved with our names. That, in your culture, means we’ve married. The TARDIS records only go back six months. She should have thousands of years of recorded history saved. Something is very, very wrong.”

She glanced between him and the screen, unable to read the circular writing. “Wrong? How is that wrong?”

“Because it’s too perfect, it’s a happy ever after with a clean slate. This must be an illusion or a dream, a very vivid dream.”

“So we can’t have a happy ending?”

He looked at her, his eyes searching her face. “Not for me Rose, I don’t get happy endings.”

She walked up to him, taking his hands in her own. “Maybe this time you do?”

He swallowed, his eyes glossy from unshed tears. He let go of her hands and held onto her shoulders, sliding them to her back and molding her into a tight embrace. “The TARDIS systems came up clean, besides her current tiff with me, she’s fine. There’s nothing there to indicate otherwise.”

“So that means it’s real, yeah? Not a dream.”

“This isn’t possible. It’s too by the numbers. All the evidence points to us having selective memory loss from a common chemical that will wear off in a few hours that we contracted on Terspid. It’s there, in the TARDIS records, our last trip was to Terspid. Everything else, years going by the evidence on your face, has happened between our going to bed after defeating the Sycorax and waking up together.”

She ignored the comment about her face. “Once we get our memory back we’ll find out how you became human?”

“Part human. Yes, that’s what I want to know. I could believe everything else, well, almost everything, if not for the fact I’ve somehow changed my biology.”

“Would you change back, when we remember, will you change back to being a full Time Lord?”

He pulled away from their embrace, ducking his head to meet her eyes. “It’s permanent I believe.”

“Is that good or bad?”

He looked at his left hand; she followed his gaze to the ring on his finger. “I don’t know, good possibly?”

His brows sprang up and his arms fell to his side. “Ah, I think I know why the TARDIS is mad at me.”

“Why is she then?”

“I’m blocking your connection to her. I didn’t realize. It was instinct, to protect the TARDIS.”

Her face grew slack. “What?”

“It seems you have a connection with the TARDIS, I didn’t recognize it before, with everything else going on. But it’s clearly a mental link between you and her, which should be impossible, but today is full of impossible, isn’t it? If we are all connected it would explain why our memory stops at the same place.”

She shuffled her feet, and rubbed her arms. Pursing her lips she caught his gaze. “How does that work, the connection I mean? She’s in my head for translation purposes or is this something else.”

“Something else, this is a very strong and specific link, it’s already there. Don’t you feel something off, besides your memory?”

She looked down, focusing on how she felt. Behind the iron cotton filling her head, there was a small empty part of her that she hadn’t noticed before. It yearned for contact. “I think, yeah, I think I feel it.” Now that she could sense this empty part of her, an irritating itch crawled up her spine. “How can I get it back?”

“Just keep your mind open, er, just, just relax and I’ll open the pathway.” He closed his eyes as he exhaled, easing his posture.

A dazzling presence entered her mind, drifting down and taking up residence inside that empty part of her. “Oh, she’s gorgeous!”

He beamed. “Isn’t she just?”

“So this is really real then? You, me, the TARDIS?”

“Seems like. I don’t know of any life form with a strong enough telepathic ability that could mimic a connection like that. Unless we were drugged, tied down, and our own memories are being forced to create an illusion in our minds, this must be real.”

“Is that possible?”

“Very unlikely, more unlikely than us being married and me being human, well, part human.”

Rose placed a hand on her stomach, unable to hold back a hysterical laugh. “This is mad, this is.”

“I know!” He looked at her, his mouth on the verge of a large grin, his eyes shining with glee.

She looked away from him, lifting her hand to fiddle with her earrings only to find her ear empty of any jewelry. “So…we, um, we woke naked and we’re, we might be married, ‘cause of the rings…so, you don’t think last night we…?”

“Oh! Oh, yes, I, er, well,” she peeked at him from the corner of her eyes and he had turned his head, his face and ears a vivid pink, “yes, most likely yes.”

“So I was right then, this is mad, waking up married to my best friend.”

“That’s not so bad is it?” he asked, his voice small.

“No, not bad at all,” she smiled. “Not surprising really, the way we were going at it, at least, before you changed.”

“My regeneration must have worked out for the best. And you’re right; it isn’t surprising, knowing me,” the Doctor preened.

“Oh, shut up!” She shook her head, her lips curved upward.

“Still, I wonder how you could possibly have a connection with the TARDIS. The only way I can think of is if you were there during her growth, which means this is a new TARDIS, which would explain why her logs only go back six months. But TARDIS’ take thousands of years to grow.”

“That must be some adolescent stage.” The TARDIS chimed grumpily and Rose stroked the rim of the console in apology. “Shouldn’t we worry more about how you turned human?”

“Yes, there is that.” He put his hands in pockets, his eyes drifting around the room. His tongue poked out from behind his lips.

She tilted her head to the side, eyeing the controls on the console, running her hands over them; her skin tingled with the connection to the ship. “Why don’t we go see Mum?”

He raised his upper lip, screwing up his face in absolute disgust. “Your mother? Why should we see her?”

“Because she probably doesn’t have our memory loss?”

His face slackened and he blinked. “Huh, didn’t think of that.”

“Good thing you have me then.”

He went back to the console, his hands dancing over the knobs and buttons, keyboards and facets. “And from the looks of it I have you forever.” He waggled his eyebrows and left hand then the ship lurched forward. “Earth, London, Powell Estate, here we come!”

Rose held on to the rim of the Time Rotor as the Doctor flew the ship. He reached over to a button with one of his feet, crawling over the console, perching on it as the ship swayed. She laughed and he joined in, forgetting for a moment the predicament they shared.

With a jolt, the TARDIS landed.

The Doctor headed to the exit, taking each step with a bounce. “Here we are then! Off to see your mother for answers.” He glanced over to Rose and pulled a face. “Never thought I’d say that.”

She followed him down the ramp, rolling her eyes. “She’s also your mother now.”

“Uck, don’t remind me.” He opened the doors, holding them open as she stepped out.

The ground was peppered with light snow and the grey daylight reflected dimly off the foggy windows of the Estate. Christmas lights hung from the surrounding buildings. Colors twinkled dimly, muted against the whites of the season.

“Isn’t this convenient? Christmas when we last remember, Christmas now,” said the Doctor.

Rose shivered. She hadn’t put on a coat, didn’t even think that she would need it with everything that had happened. She wore only a t-shirt. “I suppose, yeah.”

“Cold?”

She threw him a glare. “You think?”

He shrugged out of his brown suit jacket and handed it to her. “Here.”

“Sorry,” she replied, feeling guilty for snapping at him.  “Thanks.” She slipped on his jacket, relaxing into the warmth. “Will you be alright? Do you want to go back in and get your coat?”

He looked down at the long sleeves of his oxford. “Nah, I’ll be alright, still able to control my temperature a bit, even with these pesky hormones.”

“Guess there’s nothing to it then, ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.” He threaded his fingers through hers and tugged her forward.

They climbed the steps of the Estate, glancing at each other occasionally. Rose smiled each time, receiving a grin from him in return. Giddiness bubbled in her stomach as she anticipated getting her memories back and finding out how they got together. She drew closer to him, her shoulder pressed against his arm and he beamed.

Then she caught sight of the sky.

“Doctor?”

“Hmm?”

“Do you know of any upcoming zeppelin festivals?”

“Not that I can recall, obviously, why?”

She kept her face focused on the ships and nodded in their direction. He furrowed his brows, looking at her in confusion before turning to the sight above them.

“Oh.”

“What’d you make of it?”

He took in a large breath. “Probably nothing, like you said, zeppelin festival? New Christmas tradition maybe?”

“Another thing to ask Mum.”

“Quite.”

“Let’s go.”

They rushed to Jackie’s flat, no longer indulging in quick glances. The Doctor knocked when she couldn’t find her key in her pockets, which was another mystery. She always carried her keys in her pockets. Rose could hear a voice, muffled behind the wood. A tall, muscular man opened the door, sweeping his eyes over them both.

“Who you lot then?”

Rose wondered when her mum had dumped Howard for this new model. “Is my Mum in?”

The man looked as if she had two heads. “Your mum? No mums here.”

“No Jackie Tyler?” The Doctor asked.

The man blinked twice before his thick brows rose to the top of his head. “Jackie Tyler? You mean Jackie _Tyler_ , wife of Pete _Tyler,_ the most powerful man in Britain? That Jackie Tyler?”

“Did I hear Tyler?” Someone screeched from inside the flat. A woman with half her hair in rollers barreled to the doors from behind the man. “Oh. My. God! Rose Tyler and her bloke the Doctor! I can’t believe my eyes!”

Rose and the Doctor exchanged glances, her eyes wide. She opened her mouth, but couldn’t speak. The man said Pete Tyler. Her dad was alive? That couldn’t be. Her heart clenched and she swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. The Doctor grabbed her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. 

“Yes, that’s us!” The Doctor announced cheerily, turning to the couple.

“So it’s true then, you really are going to help out us poor folk?”

“Yep, you bet! That’s exactly why we’re here, to see how things were progressing, making sure people were happy, that sort of thing.”

“Oh, I’ve got loads to complain about!” The woman began.

“Report it to the council and we’ll make sure to look in to it. Yup! We’ll just…we’ll be off!”

The Doctor put his arm around Rose and forced her away, her feet feeling heavy enough to sink into the floor. The woman yelled after them, but to Rose it sounded like gibberish. “He said Pete Tyler. My dad…”

“Yes, a Pete Tyler. Not your dad.”

“Wait, what’d you mean?”

“Pete Tyler and Zeppelins in the sky? This is a parallel world, with a Pete that is not your dad and a Jackie that is not your mum.”

He opened the door to the stairs and she let him guide her down the steps. “Then how’d we end up here? Are we parallel versions of ourselves?”

“I don’t know.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “No. We can’t be. We both saw your father die in 1987, correct?”

“Yeah,” she mumbled.

“So we’ve somehow gotten trapped in a parallel universe, another layer to our conundrum.”

“What do we do now?” Rose couldn’t think of what to do or even how to begin to solve this. For the first time she felt unable to take action, her mind too blurred with this new information.

The Doctor opened the doors to the TARDIS and ushered her inside. Once they made their way to the Time Rotor the Doctor enveloped her into his arms and held her tight. He kissed the top of her head and she clung to him, soaking up his comfort. “When I was going through the TARDIS records I noticed an address that we travel to frequently. It’s in London. Maybe we can find some answers there.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She looked up and gave him a small smile.

“I’ve yet to show you my magnificent planning,” he pulled on his ear lobe, “er, I suppose I have, we just don’t remember it.” He let her go and faced the console. “But now is a good time as ever to start!”

~~~vVv~~~

The TARDIS landed, this time on soft snow, with green grass peeking out, right outside the doors of a large house on a large plot of land. Rose and the Doctor stood in front of the building, studying what was before them. The sand colored walls had precise texture that been carefully molded, the windows were clean and clear, and the hedges that rimmed the walls were perfectly groomed. On the glass and woodened doors two green reefs hung, decorated with silk red ribbons and gold bells. The Doctor turned to Rose and placed his hands on her shoulders, urging her to face him. His eyes were wide and serious.

“Rose, whatever we find in there, remember, this is not our world.”

“Yeah,” she agreed solemnly.

He took her hand and held it firmly. Since she woke the act of holding his hand felt second nature. There was no second guessing, in the chaos of their lives holding his hand kept her grounded. Though he was new, he was the Doctor, and nothing felt more right than being with him.

 As they started forward, the doors of house opened. Behind the doors a maid gestured for them to come inside.

“Welcome home Rose, Doctor,” the maid said.

“Uh, thanks.” Rose gave the maid a short smile and entered the house, the Doctor beside her.

After a few meters they stopped at the base of large set of stairs. The interior was decorated with lavish Christmas ornaments, maids and footmen hurried about, cleaning or putting up more Christmas festivities. Rose knitted her brows together and peered over to the Doctor. His eyes roamed over the commotion. As he turned to her, she heard a familiar voice call out.

“Rose, there you are!” Jackie rushed out from one of the side rooms to come over to them. “You promised you’d be here bright and early to help with the party!”

Rose gasped, her mouth hanging open at the sight of her mum dressed in fine clothing. They needed information and if traveling with the Doctor taught her anything, it was how to play along. She quickly reacted as normally as she could. “S-sorry Mum, something came up.”

“Doesn’t it always.” Jackie waved her hand dismissively. “The guests don’t arrive for another three hours and we’ve still got loads to do! And himself can help out this time.” She frowned at the Doctor.

“Me?” The Doctor pointed to his chest.

“Yes, you. You’re a part of the family now, so you better get used to lending a hand.” Jackie chuckled. “Oh, that’s a good one! As I was saying, it’s only been a year and you still think you can get away with swanning off!”

“What’d you mean a year?” Rose asked.

A worried expression dawned on Jackie’s face. “You know, don’t you sweetheart?”

Rose looked at the Doctor and then back to her mother. “No, we don’t actually.”

Jackie let out a hard sigh. “Oh, what is it this time? Got replaced by bog monsters, lost your memories again, ate the wrong foods and you two are now high as kites?”

“Actually, Jackie –“

“I’ve told you to call me Mum!”

The Doctor nodded once. “Right, it seems we’ve gotten, just a tad, bit of amnesiafromhighlevelsofMycornin.” He rushed out the last part of the sentence.

“I think I got amnesia from all that. So you’ve lost your memories? I take it they’ll come back?” She placed her hands on her hips before the Doctor or Rose could reply. “This is the third time in four months! You’d better rethink how you travel in that box of yours, one day your memories might never come back.”

The Doctor looked between Rose and her mum for a moment before leaning forward, his full attention on Jackie. “Then can you answer some questions for us? Specifically about me being part human and this being in a parallel world.”

“Yeah, Mum, I heard about…is my dad…?”

“Rose,” the Doctor warned.

Jackie shook her head. “Don’t you worry about that now, it’ll soon come back to you. And I’m your Mum, not some pompous woman who thinks she can treat my Pete like yesterday’s news, may she rest in peace. I still haven’t forgiven her for what she did, even though she’s me. I have every right not to forgive myself, or another version of myself. Oh, these things can get confusing.”

“Jackie,” the Doctor bit out.

“Oh, right! Well, you’ve been here a year, since you were asking me about that I take it that’s where you left off, and you grew from a hand, I still can’t believe how this sounds normal now, but there was two of you and he called it an instant bicentennial something. You two have been married for seven months and I warned you both you were rushing into things getting hitched only after five months of being back together.”

“No, hold on, there were two of me?”

“Yeah, one fully alien and you, half human.”

“How could there be two of you?” Rose watched as his face switched from bewilderment to understanding.

“Oh! My hand, you remember my hand, when I lost it fighting the Sycorax?” He wiggled his fingers at her, grinning. “Instantaneous Biological Metacrisis!” He made a happy noise in the back of his throat. Then his face crumbled into confusion. “How’d that happened? The variables for something like that to occur are astounding!”

“Hush you, the memories are gonna come back, yeah?”

“Yes.”

“Then don’t worry about it and help fix the house up for the party!”

 “Wait, Mum, you said he’s been here a year? What about us, me and you?”

“How many years are you missing?” Jackie studied Rose’s face and a moment later her eyes softened. She let out a soft exhale and squeezed Rose’s arm. “We’ve been here four years, counting the last one with the Doctor.”

“How –”

“You two really shouldn’t be pressing for so many answers. It was hard enough dealing with you both the last time. The memories will come back, just put it out of your mind for now. I gotta run, Tony should be waking from his nap any minute.”

Jackie rushed off the same way she had come, leaving Rose and the Doctor staring after her. Rose wondered who Tony could be since her family didn’t know of a Tony.

A maid came up to them with her arms full of tinsel and a desperate plea in her eyes. Rose turned to the Doctor and he threaded their fingers together, gripping her hand tighter.  She wanted to help, but without either of their memories and after everything they just learned, she imagined lopsided and half hung decorations ruining her mother’s party. The Doctor exhaled, keeping her gaze as understanding passed between them.

Without saying a word, they ran. They dodged the flurry of maids and footmen, chefs, and staff workers, searching for places that weren’t touched by the activities.

They found a small room, dark and calm in the far corner of the house, tucked away from prying eyes, where they could sit and wait. Neither of them turned on the lights. She slid to the floor behind a few chairs, away from the door and leaned back against the wall, letting her mind process everything that had happened in the last couple of hours. The Doctor sat next to her, his long legs stretched out.

Neither of them spoke. Minutes passed in comfortable silence.

Rose turned to the Doctor after the silence became too quiet. She missed his voice. But as she took in his appearance she was surprised to see a deep frown set on his face and his eyes drifting over the ceiling. She grabbed his hand, stroking his thumb. As soon as her skin touched his he deflated, his shoulders slumping as he closed his eyes.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

He looked at her, his eyes lidded and glassy. “I’m thinking about what your mother said.”

“What about?”

“We married after five months of being _back_ together. I’ve only been here a year, you’ve been here four. Obviously we were separated. And not by choice.”

“Don’t think I want to remember that bit.”

“Me neither.”

Rose leaned her head on his shoulder, drawing herself as close to him as possible.

“There is another me out there, most likely in the other universe, without you.”

“Don’t think I want to remember that either. Rather it just be me and you.”

“Mmm.” He placed their entwined hands on his lap and covered them with his other hand. He inhaled, loud in the quiet room. “Rose?”

“Yeah?”

“May I?”

“May you what?” She titled her head back and found his face close to hers. His closeness caused her stomach to swoop and her breath to hitch.

“Kiss you?”

She licked her bottom lip, drawing his eyes to the action. She let the anticipation coil deep within her. New Doctor or old, full Time Lord or part human, this was the man she loved and all she ever wanted. “’Course.”

“Good.”

“Are you?”

“Yes.”

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. His mouth moved against hers softly and her chest filled with warmth, her mind freed from her worries for the moment. He let go of her hand to move both to her back, pressing her closer. With each pass of his lips over hers, his hot breath elicited goose flesh down her arms and legs.

She pulled back enough to whisper. “So, how are we gonna spend this holiday, Doctor?”

“With family,” he replied immediately and kissed her again, his lips sliding over hers easily.

Two hours later, their memories returned. 


End file.
